As of: 23 August 2026

Wild camping at the Marscholsee: lawful, and the next lake along is not

Two lakes sit either side of the San Bernardino pass, 1'794 metres apart, in the same canton, inside the same federal landscape inventory and the same mire landscape of national importance. At one of them you would need the commune to say yes. At this one nothing prohibits a night at all. The variable is the commune boundary, and it runs between them.

Leon Helg
Leon Helg · Legal situation checked in August 2026 · Published 23 August 2026
What do these mean?

Illegal A specific rule bans it, usually with a fine, and it can be enforced. Sleep somewhere else.

Not allowed No real place to camp here. A gated site, a developed area, or nowhere sensible to lie down, even if no fine is attached.

It depends You can sleep here, but there's a condition first: ask the landowner, book a spot, stay inside a set zone, or use a bivvy instead of a tent. The report says which.

Tolerated No rule clearly allows or bans it, but a single night is accepted in practice and nobody enforces against it. Normal for high bivouacs above the treeline.

Legal Camping one night is fine here. Either a rule allows it, or we checked every law and found nothing against it. Still: pitch late, leave early, no trace.

What "wild camping" means here: one night. A small tent or a bivvy bag, up towards evening, gone in the morning. Not a base camp, not a camper van. Most Swiss bans are written against camping; whether a single night also falls under them depends on the exact wording, so this article checks that wording. The full difference: wild camping vs bivouacking.

Three levels, and the word is not in any of them

A verdict built on an absence is only worth something if you can say where you looked. So here is each level, with what was actually read and what the controls counted.

Federal. Queried at the lake and again at the pitch this article recommends: no hunting-ban district, no wildlife rest zone, no floodplain, no amphibian site, no dry meadow, no park. Two hits, and neither prohibits camping. The first is BLN 1907 "Quellgebiet des Hinterrheins, Passo del San Bernardino", a landscape inventory addressed to authorities. The second is the mire landscape of national importance "San Bernardino", and the distinction there is the one people get wrong: a mire landscape binds the canton when it plans and permits, while a bog object, a Flachmoor or Hochmoor, is the strict regime. The pin is in no bog object, and neither is the pitch, checked explicitly rather than assumed.1

Cantonal. Graubünden's planning act carries no camping provision anywhere in its 364 articles. Its two protection-zone articles are the ones that matter here, and both regulate building rather than behaviour: the nature-protection zone article prohibits "Neue Bauten und Anlagen sowie Eingriffe wie Entwässerungen oder Bewässerungen und Düngungen", with no access clause at all, and the landscape-protection zone article likewise reaches buildings. That distinction decides plenty of Graubünden verdicts, because some communal laws do add an access ban on top and this canton's own framework does not.3

Communal, and here it took a step most people would skip. Rheinwald is a merged commune, formed in 2019 out of Hinterrhein, Nufenen, Splügen and Medels im Rheinwald. Merged communes very often still run the pre-merger law on the pre-merger ground, and the cadastre says so outright: the act in force at this point is the Baugesetz Hinterrhein.4

So I read it, all 49 pages of it. Occurrences of campieren: none. Biwak: none. Lagern: none. Wohnwagen: none. nächtigen: none. Control terms in the same scan count normally, 162 for Art, 43 for Zone, 59 for Gemeinde, so the zeros are real zeros and not a broken search. The word Zelt does appear four times, and every one of them is in the list of structures that need no building permit: tents for festivals and exhibitions, and igloos and tipi tents for overnight stays in ski areas or at farms. Campingzone appears once, in the index, with no page number beside it, because this act has no such zone.4

And the communal act hands the zone content back to the canton. Its own index maps Landschaftsschutzzone and Naturschutzzone to the cantonal planning act's articles rather than defining them locally, which is why the cantonal reading above is the operative one and not just background.43

The commune boundary is the whole story

This is the part worth carrying away from this article, because it will save you somewhere else too. The Laghetto Moesola lies 1'794 metres from here. Same canton. Same pass. Inside the same BLN object and the same mire landscape. Its verdict is restricted, not because anything forbids camping, but because the commune it sits in, Mesocco, wrote into its building law an express power for the municipality to authorise limited-duration tenting outside the camping zone. Where a commune reserves that decision to itself, you ask; and asking can be refused.6

Rheinwald wrote no such sentence. There is no camping zone in the Baugesetz Hinterrhein, no authorisation requirement for tenting, and no prohibition either. Nothing to apply for and nothing to breach. Two lakes, twenty minutes apart on foot, and the answer changes with the boundary between them.46

The cadastre detail, because a big alpine parcel needs the point checked and not the parcel. The extract for this ground is EGRID CH515694077808, Rheinwald parcel 3026, 6'874'649 square metres, with 128 restrictions. Pulled with geometry and tested at the coordinate itself, the geometry key histogram reading 119 surfaces, 5 lines and 4 points, so polygon coverage is complete and a negative means something. At the point: agricultural zone, the water zone for the lake itself, landscape-protection zone, the mire-landscape perimeter, noise sensitivity level III.5

And the number that matters most: the pin is not in a nature-protection zone, but the nearest one is 74 metres away. That is close enough that "I checked the parcel" would have been useless and only a point test settles it. Even that zone, on the cantonal wording, prohibits buildings and land interventions rather than people, but it is the kind of line worth knowing you are near.53

What the place is like. 2'053.8 m, above the treeline, on the shelf north of the Passo del San Bernardino. Twelve buildings within 1.2 kilometres and the nearest at 819 metres, on the Strada del Pass, all of them recorded as non-residential, then the Tällialp beyond. Not wilderness, but not somebody's doorstep either.2

Mask the water before you trust any flat reading here. This pass is full of small lakes and pools: the scan for this article pulled 38 separate water rings out of the map before measuring anything. The height model flattens water to the water plane, so an unmasked scan at a place like this recommends the middle of a lake and does it convincingly.2

Masked and measured, the basin is generous: 216 samples, 206 of them dry, and 69 at 10 degrees or flatter, of which 54 sit at least 40 metres back from any water.2

The pitch: about 250 metres south-southwest, LV95 2'732'851 / 1'152'200, 2'098.6 m. Slope 1.3 degrees, and 196 metres from the nearest water, so the fifty-metre rule is kept nearly four times over. Re-checked at that exact point rather than inferred: still Rheinwald, still only the landscape-protection zone and the mire-landscape perimeter, not in a nature-protection zone and not in any fen or raised bog.25

One candidate I am deliberately not publishing. The scan found flatter ground still, 1.1 degrees about 600 metres south-southwest, but that point falls outside this parcel, so its zoning was never verified. Recommending it would mean guessing, and the whole value of the pitch above is that it was checked.5

The mires are the thing to actually respect here. You are inside a mire landscape of national importance even where you are not on a bog, and the bog objects nearby are exactly the ground that suffers from a tent and a boot. Stay on the firm, dry shelf, keep off anything spongy or cotton-grassed whatever the map says, and if the ground gives underfoot, move.1

General rules for wild camping

They matter more where you may than where you may not, and here you may. A commune with no camping rule is a commune that has never needed one, and the fastest way to give it a reason is a fire ring and a bag of rubbish on a mire shelf.

  • No fire. An open fire has no place in the mountains. A gas stove is enough.
  • Pitch late, strike early. Set up towards evening, gone again early. A bivouac is one night, not a base camp.
  • Leave no rubbish. Everything you carry up you carry down, organic scraps and toilet paper included.
  • At least 50 metres from any water for the big business, so you do not foul what people and livestock drink.
  • Stay small and quiet. A small group, no speaker, no drone, dogs on the lead, and the alp staff's word goes.

Disclaimer

This article reflects my research and assessment to the best of my knowledge, as of August 2026. It is based on the publicly accessible and official sources linked below. It does not replace legal advice and is not a binding statement of the current legal situation.

The verdict rests on the absence of any camping provision at federal, cantonal and communal level, and an absence can end: Rheinwald can adopt a police or camping regulation, and a merged commune harmonising the four pre-merger building laws is exactly the moment such a rule appears. The act read here is the Baugesetz Hinterrhein, which the cadastre names as in force at this point; if you are elsewhere in Rheinwald a different pre-merger act may govern. Zone findings are point-in-polygon at the coordinates given and the nearest nature-protection zone is 74 m away, so a pitch chosen by eye somewhere else on this shelf is not covered by that check. Before every tour, check the current sources yourself, read any sign you find on the ground and follow instructions on site. A genuine emergency bivouac in distress is a separate question from a planned camp. Anyone who spends the night outside bears responsibility for their own conduct and any consequences themselves. Hikebeast, Leon Helg and Saftladen GmbH accept no liability for decisions made on the basis of this text, and call on no one to break applicable law.

Frequently asked questions

Is wild camping allowed at the Marscholsee?
Yes, for a single night. Nothing prohibits it at any level. The federal layers return only the BLN landscape object and the San Bernardino mire landscape, neither of which carries a camping provision, and the point is in no fen or raised bog. The cantonal planning act has no camping provision at all, and the communal act in force here, the Baugesetz Hinterrhein, contains no occurrence of campieren, Biwak, Lagern, Wohnwagen or nächtigen.
What is the fine for camping at the Marscholsee?
None applies, because nothing here is prohibited. There is no communal camping rule to breach, and the cantonal protection-zone articles that cover this ground prohibit new buildings, installations and interventions such as drainage or fertilising rather than people spending a night.
Why is the Laghetto Moesola restricted when this lake is legal?
Because the commune changes at the pass and the communal law is what decides. The Moesola, 1'794 m away, is in Mesocco, whose building law gives the municipality an express power to authorise limited-duration tenting outside the camping zone, so there the lawful route runs through a request that can be refused. The Marscholsee is in Rheinwald, whose act in force here has no camping provision at all, so there is nothing to apply for.
Does the mire landscape stop me?
No, but respect it. A mire landscape of national importance binds the canton when it plans and authorises things; it is not an access ban. The strict regime attaches to the bog objects themselves, the fens and raised bogs, and both the lake point and the pitch recommended here are outside every one of them, checked explicitly. Stay off soft, spongy ground regardless of what any map says.
Where is the flat ground at the Marscholsee?
Plentiful, once the water is masked out: 69 of 206 dry samples come in at 10 degrees or flatter. The pitch worth walking to is about 250 metres south-southwest at 2'098.6 m, LV95 2'732'851 / 1'152'200, 1.3 degrees and 196 metres back from the water. Flatter ground exists 600 metres out but falls outside the parcel whose zoning was verified, so this article does not recommend it.
Leon Helg

Leon Helg

Swiss filmmaker and software developer. Spends his free time in the Swiss Alps and maps his favourite spots for Hikebeast. Posts as @leon.helg on Instagram and TikTok.

Swiss Guide Wildcamping Checker Color Grading

Sources

  1. Official federal geodata, queried 23 August 2026 at the Marscholsee, WGS84 46.509849 N / 9.171332 E, LV95 2'732'976 / 1'152'417, 2'053.8 m, commune Rheinwald, canton Graubünden, current-year boundary records only, and repeated at the recommended pitch LV95 2'732'851 / 1'152'200. At both points the hunting-ban, wildlife-rest-zone, national-park and parks, floodplain, raised-bog, fen, amphibian, dry-meadow and water-bird-reserve layers return an empty result set. Two hits at both: BLN 1907 "Quellgebiet des Hinterrheins, Passo del San Bernardino" and the mire landscape of national importance "San Bernardino". A mire landscape binds authorities at planning level under the mire-landscape ordinance; the strict regime attaches to the fen and raised-bog objects, and neither point lies in one. Verified with a positive control at LV95 2'626'000 / 1'154'500, which returns federal game reserve no. 3 Kiental, and an invalid-layer control, which returns HTTP 400 rather than an empty set. map.geo.admin.ch. ↩
  2. Terrain and settlement analysis at the Marscholsee, 23 August 2026, on the federal height model with a water mask taken from OpenStreetMap, which returned 38 separate water rings in this basin; without it the flattened lake surfaces win the flatness ranking outright. Nine rings from 50 to 600 m in 24 directions, slope from a 25 m cross at every sample: 216 samples, 206 dry, 10 masked as water, 69 at 10 degrees or flatter, of which 54 sit 40 m or more back from any water. Recommended pitch 1.3 degrees at 2'098.6 m, LV95 2'732'851 / 1'152'200, 250 m on bearing 210, 196 m from the nearest water. A flatter reading of 1.1 degrees at 600 m on bearing 195 is deliberately not published because it falls outside the parcel whose zoning was verified. Federal building and dwelling register within 1'200 m: 12 buildings, the nearest at 819 m (Strada del Pass, category 1060, no residential use), then the Tällialp. map.geo.admin.ch. ↩
  3. Raumplanungsgesetz für den Kanton Graubünden (KRG), BR 801.100. No camping provision anywhere in the act: zero whole-word occurrences of Zelt, Campieren, Camping, Biwak, Lagern or Übernachten across its 364 articles, against controls that count normally. Art. 33 Naturschutzzonen prohibits "Neue Bauten und Anlagen sowie Eingriffe wie Entwässerungen oder Bewässerungen und Düngungen", with no access or presence clause. Art. 34 Landschaftsschutzzonen, the zone covering this point, likewise reaches buildings and installations rather than people. Note the contrast that decides other Graubünden verdicts: some communal building laws add an access ban of their own on top of these articles, and the act in force here does not. gr-lex.gr.ch. ↩
  4. Baugesetz der Gemeinde Hinterrhein, the communal act the cadastre names as in force at this point. Rheinwald was formed in 2019 from Hinterrhein, Nufenen, Splügen and Medels im Rheinwald, and merged communes commonly retain the pre-merger act on the pre-merger ground. Read in full 23 August 2026, 49 pages, 108'342 characters: zero occurrences of campieren, Biwak, Lagern, Wohnwagen or nächtigen, on a word-boundary scan whose control terms count normally (Art 162, Zone 43, Gemeinde 59). Zelt occurs four times, every one of them inside the catalogue of structures requiring no building permit: tents for festivals, performances and exhibitions, and "Iglus und Tipizelte für Übernachtungen in Skigebieten während der Wintersaison oder bei Bauernhöfen von Mai bis Oktober". Campingzone appears once, in the index, with no page reference, the act having no such zone. The act's index maps Landschaftsschutzzone and Naturschutzzone to the cantonal planning act rather than defining them locally. oereblex.gr.ch. ↩
  5. Cadastre of public-law restrictions on landownership (ÖREB), canton Graubünden, extract with geometry retrieved 23 August 2026. EGRID CH515694077808, Rheinwald parcel 3026, 6'874'649 m², 128 restrictions. Geometry-key histogram before any conclusion: Surface 119, Line 5, Point 4, so polygon coverage is complete. Point-in-polygon at the lake returns Landwirtschaftszone, Zone übriges Gemeindegebiet (Gewässer), Landschaftsschutzzone, "Perimeter Moorlandschaft von nationaler Bedeutung gemäss Art. 3 Moorlandschaftsverordnung", Empfindlichkeitsstufe III and an unsurveyed-hazard-zone note. The point is not in a Naturschutzzone; the nearest is 74 m away. The same test at the recommended pitch returns the same set and likewise no Naturschutzzone. The legal provisions attached name the Baugesetz Hinterrhein, the communal Zweitwohnungsgesetz and the cantonal planning act. oereb.geo.gr.ch. ↩
  6. Comparison with the neighbouring lake, published separately: the Laghetto Moesola, LV95 2'732'960 / 1'150'623, 1'794 m from the Marscholsee, same canton and same federal inventories, is graded restricted because it lies in the commune of Mesocco, whose Legge edilizia art. 36 cpv. 4 provides that "Attendamenti di durata limitata possono essere autorizzati dal Municipio al di fuori della zona di campeggio", an express discretionary power for the municipality to authorise limited-duration tenting outside the camping zone. That is a consent route requiring an individual yes. No equivalent provision exists in the act in force at the Marscholsee. Wild camping at the Laghetto Moesola. ↩